Madison Outheir finished out the richest week in women’s rodeo after running one of the most anticipated calves of her life at the inaugural WCRA Rodeo’s Women’s Rodeo World Championships Main Event breakaway roping on Sunday, Nov. 15 2020 in Arlington, Texas.

With a 2.05-second run, she took home $60,000 for winning the WRWC’s breakaway roping, held in conjunction with the PBR World Finals. Outhier, 18, is no stranger to winning at the AT&T Stadium, as she won the first-ever RFD-TVs The American Breakaway Roping title in 2019. 

"I don’t think it’s sunk in,” said Outhier, who was recently accepted to Texas A&M University. “I’m just happy to be at the AT&T Stadium. It's such a cool experience that that WCRA has given us, and I’m just so thankful that we’re able to rope here on such a big stage and that breakaway roping has been able to excel so much in the past couple years. I’m so thankful to the WCRA and the PBR for putting it in here. It’s such an awesome day.”

Outhier roped the black calf tagged No. 113, which is the calf that helped her to qualify for the main event during the WRWC’s progressive rounds.

"We got to draft pick them, so that means we got to pick which cattle we wanted and I picked him,” Outhier explained. “I had roped him before and I was like ‘Surely I can do it again.’ That is an amazing calf.”

Outhier was the second-to-last cowgirl to throw her rope with Kansas’s Beau Peterson on her tails with a 2.14-second run, which took second place, worth $20,000.

“Beau is an amazing roper,” Outheir said. “I was a 2.08 in the very last round and Beau was roping right after me and went 1.8—again, back-to-back 1.8s. I know that she ropes so good—all those girls do. I didn’t think I'd be in the position to be winning it necessarily when I roped, but to be in that position, I was just happy at the moment, and I knew anything could happen and was just wishing Beau the best, too.”

Outhier rode her 11-year-old sorrel family-bred gelding, Rooster, out of LA Waters Quarter Horses, based in Utopia, Texas. The same horse helped her win The American title.

“That’s my favorite horse ever,” she said with a big smile. “He’s a pain in the butt sometimes. He wasn’t wanting to sit still. I was like, ‘Dude! You’ve been here two times before this. What are you doing?’ He’s got such a big personality. My grandparents started breeding horses. My dad broke and trained him. Nobody else has ever roped off that horse before me. It’s just been my dad and I. To have him and for him to be on top of his game—I know that keeps me on top of my game.”

The $60,000 paycheck wasn’t the sole win Outhier had during what the industry has dubbed Women’s Week in Texas—with the Cowgirl Gathering and the WPRA Finale coinciding with the WCRA’s events. Outhier also won the Texas Women’s Open Polo Championship Tournament hours before she competed at the AT&T Stadium, which is the biggest polo win of her career—requiring her to fly between Houston and Arlington via private jet to make each event.

“I had a great team that my mom helped put together and helped coach,” said Outhier, whose mom, Kristy, was America’s No. 1 polo player and second in the world in 2018. “We had a great team of girls and we won all week. I actually had to do the same thing on Thursday when I roped in the final round of this thing to get back to my game, and we won that game to put us in the finals today. We ended up winning our finals which was at 2 o’clock in Houston (Texas). My parents are amazing. I had my mom there supporting me with the polo and had my dad (Mike) here with Rooster saddled and ready to go when I got here.”

It’s no doubt that Outhier has the best of both worlds with her parents support in both her rodeo career, as well as her polo career.

“My mother is definitely my rock,” she said. “She helps me with my barrel horses too. She’s not just polo. She’s taught me everything that I know about polo. She’s always supportive of my rodeo career. My father has taught me everything about roping. We practice every single day together whether it’s fun or not. He’s always there and he’s the one that makes sure that I’m doing the right thing all the time in the arena and out of the arena. He’s such an amazing person. He’s been to the NFR four times in the saddle bronc riding, and he’s a great calf roper. He’s won the Linderman Award twice in ProRodeo. He’s been there and done that and he was getting pretty nervous today, I could tell.

“This the best day of my life,” Outhier concluded. BRJ

Updates are brought to you by Resistol and Charlie 1 Horse Hats.

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Full Results

1. Madison Outhier, 2.05-second run, worth $60,000
2. Beau Peterson, 2.14-second run, worth $20,000
3. Sawyer Gilbert, 2.54-second run, worth $12,500
4. Loni Lester, 2.56-second run, worth $10,000
5. Kelsie Chace, 3.43-second run, worth $7,500
6. Paisley Pierce, No Time, worth $5,000

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